Representative Data and Psychometric Properties of Short Version of the Korean-English Bilingual Aphasia Test

Abstract

Previous studies investigating the psychometric properties of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) have found variable results. This study sought to investigate performance of high proficiency Korean-English (KE) bilinguals on Korean and English BAT and examine the equivalency of test difficulty across the two languages. A total of thirty KE bilinguals took the Korean-BAT, English-BAT, and Korean-English Translation Test (KETT). Their performance was evaluated and compared across two languages. Results showed that KE bilinguals performed above 80% on all subtests, however, they displayed different performance between Korean and English in three subtests. Item analyses found eighteen items with whose accuracy was below 80% and sixteen item pairs with unequal performance across the two languages. These results support the importance of testing psychometric properties of BAT and developing normative data for each language. Based on the representative data, recommendations for further modification of the BAT and a new ceiling criterion are proposed.